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10 Dec 2016 3:42:38am

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One final thing, decision-making is increasingly being found to be distributed throughout the nervous system. The idea of 'ready-at-hand' from a Heideggerian perspective may account for the activity in the nervous system when we consciously focus on something that is graspable; the body is constantly entering a potential 'ready-states' in preparation to act upon the world as perceived consciously. We are conscious of a knife on the table and the body makes a tacit preparation to grasp at it. That doesn't mean we choose to grasp at it and how that comes about is I believe through the subconscious and conscious working in concert. We can consciously override the impulse (free-won't).

Anyway, in the end I don't think it's impressive to say that external factors affect decision-making or that most of our 'awareness' is the subconscious level - this is hardly revelationary and as strong proponent of Darwinian evolution, if Harris believes that consciousness is epiphenomenal, a mere froth on a thoroughly deterministic (cause and effect) mechanism then he needs to explain why it's beneficial form an evolutionary point-of-view to have this highly complex, energy-intensive appendage. I would contend that consciousness and the subconsciousness aren't discrete from each and necessarily 'frame' decision-making in unison. One isn't solely at the whim of the other.

I would also contend that the subsconscious might 'select' which decisions to parse through the conscious self (many are mostly unconscious with the dimmest awareness bought to bear by our consciousness), according to perpetually modified yet pre-existing framing of our identities - ie the subconscious might direct our consciousness to a red ball on the ground in part through a memory and emotional connection with a red ball in our childhood. The impulse is there to grasp at it yet our consciousness upon having it brought to our attention might veto the decision. The subjective 'I' might impel a counterveiling action upon the subconsciousness, which when given that reality (the reality that the ball wasn't grasped) will proceed to make a set of determinations based on that reality to be parsed again through the conscious self.